Puzzle Known As Life
by GraySkyeMourning
Summary: An unseen demon is slowly murdering Danny’s soul, piece by piece, and will not stop until he claims all Danny has ever held dear. Completed 6906
1. Part One

**Disclaimer – **Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman. I am making no money off of this and am writing purely for pleasure. The title of this fic comes from the song "45" by the band Shinedown.

**Summary – **An unseen demon is slowly murdering Danny's soul, piece by piece, and will not stop until he claims all Danny has ever held dear.

**A/N: **This fic is not what it appears to be. I warn you, it is very, very dark and has adult themes, including murder, insanity, sex and violence. If this disturbs you, please turn around now and don't look back. Danny grows throughout this story and will act as a young adult when that time comes. This will be posted in two long parts as to not overwhelm. This is only my second Danny Phantom, and so I ask you be wary of those characters whom I butcher with their characterization. Thank you.

-GraySkyeMourning

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_What ever happened to the young man's heart  
Swallowed by pain, as he slowly fell apart  
- 45, _Shinedown

--------------------

**Puzzle Known as Life**

**By: GraySkyeMourning**

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Silver streaks ran in tendrils across the sky. Shameless, unforgiving rain beat upon the ground violently, soaking all under the heavens. Lightning breezed through the atmosphere, lighting a candle for a brief moment, only to be doused the next by the rain.

Danny hugged his arms around his knees, pressing his forehead against them and closing his eyes. The canopy of trees above him sheltered him slightly, and he huddled closer to the trunk. Coldness swept throughout his body, and he shivered, opening his eyes to once again make sure he was alone.

The park was deserted.

He inhaled deeply, sucking at the humid air and then releasing the breath in an aching cough.

He closed his eyes, and remembered.

--------------------

_"You cannot escape this, child." _

_Danny leaned against the cold steel doorframe, ignoring the fact that if that demon so pleased, he could blast open the door and destroy him. He rested his burnt cheek against the steel, taking an ounce of pleasure from the feeling. He closed his eyes, and listened to the maniacal laughter that wafted from the other side of the door. _

_"Everyone is gone. There is nothing left." _

_He didn't want to think about that. It hurt to bad. Slowly, he slid with his back against the door until he was sitting down. He held his knees to his forehead, and leaned against them, attempting to shut off the pain. His burns hurt. _

_But the aching, gaping and unfinished hole that dramatized the center of his heart positively flamed. _

_He'd failed them. _

_He'd failed them all. _

_"You know this must be the end." _

_No. It couldn't just be the end, could it? That wasn't possible. This wasn't how things were supposed to turn out. They weren't all supposed to end up… like they did. They weren't all supposed to be the selfless incarnations of their former selves. This wasn't supposed to happen like this. _

_"I'm sorry they turned out like that." _

_No. The demon was never sorry. _

_The demon only killed. _

--------------------

Burning tears made way to his eyes. They fell from his face like scattered seeds and moistened his already soaked neck. He pounded his temple into his knees, wanting desperately to strike the pain away. His burnt face throbbed agony, and when he brought a hand to his head, he felt the warmness that could only come from blood.

The feeling only caused him to sob harder, his hacking cries lost in the sound of the downpour and only to ever be heard by the sky.

-------------------

_The demon was a white haired, clear skinned monster whose eyes were like daggers. The demon was relentless; if he could not have Danny Fenton, then all those close to him would pay for the fact._

_Before Danny even knew what was happening, the demon took Jazz. She's known for a while, he found out later. She had known since that duel with Spectra, and had been blessed enough to never let a soul know that she knew but Sam. Sam had been angry at first; Jazz couldn't be trusted, could she? But that idea had fallen away over the months, and when the trio turned into sophomores, the idea was nothing more than a whisper. _

_The demon took her in her sleep. At her cries, Danny had fled to her room, unsure of what to find. Perhaps bad dreams? Or had the ghosts who sought him finally decided to use lethal strength? _

_It was the latter. By the time he got to her room, she was already gone. His parents were devastated. Ghosts, they'd screamed. It had been the ghosts who had taken their daughter from their own home. His parents vowed to not let the thing go unpunished, and with that they shut down the portal to the Other Side and picked up their equipment and RV and left. _

_Danny was fifteen at the time. _

--------------------

The tears fell faster now. He held his hands in his face, bitterly wiping them away only for his cheeks to be softened again a second later. __His face ached. Hysterically, he intertwined his fingers through his hair, pulling hard and breathing relief when that pain eased his burns.

What had he done to deserve this?

-------------------

_For whatever reason the demon fancied, it was Tucker who was taken next, a year after Jazz was. _

_His parents thought the road would not be good for Danny, and arranged for Tucker's family to take him in. He hated living in their charity, but the Foleys liked him, and Tucker was ecstatic to be living with his best friend. His parents sent money and letters constantly at first; they were in __Wisconsin__, they were in __Ohio__, they were in __Alabama__. The ghosts were plentiful, but they couldn't find the one who had murdered Jazz's soul. He asked them how they would know which one had been the culprit; they would know, they said. They would know._

_The letters stopped coming after a year or so. His home was still open to him, and so sometimes he would visit, open the portal to the Other Side and try to find the demon on his own. It was a hopeless search, one that yielded no information and no leads. He was devastated, but apparently not as much as his parents. The lost of the letters had hurt him, but he'd expected it. His mother had written they'd come into seriously haunted territory and were extremely busy, and probably wouldn't be able to write much. _

_The Foleys were understanding, and kept Danny, even though the initial plan had only been for Danny to stay for a year. In the last letter, his mother had offered for Danny to move across the country to __Alabama__ to stay with his aunt, but the Foleys would have none of it. Separate Danny and Tucker? Not on their lives! _

_He missed his parents. They'd been a burden back then, but they were always there. They'd cared about him. _

_But, he thought bitterly, not as much as they cared for Jazz, and not enough to see pass their pain and look at him. _

_They'd never known about his alter ego. They'd never known he could have saved her if he had been a moment earlier, or that he could have prevented the demon from taking her if the accident had never happened. It was his fault, and he was grateful, if not guilty, that they had not known of his fault. His parents were kind, loving people, but they would look at him with shame in their eyes and hatred in their hearts. _

_It was his fault that their only daughter had been stolen from him. _

_Tucker and Sam were good for him after his parents went AWOL. Tucker was always there, of course, during school and during the night when his nightmares seized him and would not let go. In those cases, Tucker would grab his flailing arms and hold him steady, urging him to awake and that it was only a dream. Danny wasn't sure if he could have made it through the nights without Tucker. _

_And Sam was just… Sam. She was passionate, she was wily, she listened to him in the way Tucker could not bear to. She held him when he cried out his heart, and never made him feel lame for not being strong enough to look away. She could run her hand through his hair, and when she did that he saw her, and didn't remember the way his mother or Jazz would. She loved him with all her heart, and accepted that it would maybe take a while for him to do the same. _

_They began dating formerly at the end of sophomore year. He took her to a movie and a moonlit stroll through the park that was blessedly not haunted by his enemies. He'd made a fool of himself, and she'd giggled and appreciated the way he was still himself. When he began to cry again for no apparent reason – it happened a lot after his mother left – she'd held him in her arms and had kissed him truly for the first time, and there was nothing fake about it. _

_Tucker started drifting then. He'd always been a jealous person, and having to share Danny with Sam forced him into feeling left out. Danny had tried his best to make him see that it wasn't possible, that Sam did not have the bond he shared with Tucker. They were brother, he had said. Nothing could ever change that. _

_But Tucker saw things differently, and when he was taken, Danny had been in the same room. _

_They shared a room in the Foley residence. Most of the time Danny took the cot, but Tucker was gracious and allowed him to have the bed after his nightmares. It was an easy partnership that was tested after he started going out with Sam. Tucker would hold his arms to the side of the cot and then return to the bed, giving no words of comfort. Danny hated that, but Tucker would not give. _

_There were no nightmares the night Tucker was taken. If it was one thing, it was that fact that Danny could not let himself forget. Maybe if he had been dreaming, he could have awoken and been awake when the demon took his best friend, his brother. But he had not dreamt, and when he awoke it was to Tucker's startled cries and screams. _

_The demon was already gone by the time Danny opened his eyes, and Tucker was gone as well. _

_Danny was sixteen at the time. _

-------------------

Thinking of Tucker always hurt, but tonight the torment was positively unbearable. His fingers softly untwined from his hair, and he stared at them, startled at how hard they were shaking. He held his knees for a second, and then transferred them to his elbows. He rocked back and forth sadistically, slamming his back again and again into the oak he sat beside. The wood drove sharp pin pokes of pain deep into his mind, and for a moment he forgot all about Tucker and his guilt and the pain that brought.

But it was only for a moment, though.

-------------------

_His parents were taken next, as if they weren't already gone to begin with. _

_After Tucker was taken, his parents tried to be kind to him. Yes, yes, they sobbed, Danny, we want you to stay; you were his best friend! But Danny couldn't stay with them. He saw the burning conviction in their eyes, that heavy curtain of accusation they so cunningly threw at him: they blamed him. He had been in the room with Tucker. Why hadn't the demon taken him? Why their son? _

_Danny wondered the same. _

_He had never really believed in the notion of pure evil. Yes, the ghosts he fought were to some extent bad and generally not good. But he did not look fully at their actions, he looked at their motivations. Wealth and revenge were something he could understand, and he did not think it fair to blame them solely for their actions. Society bred that desire for such a thing. The need to control puzzled him, but he accepted it and understood. _

_The demon was pure evil. Danny understood it the moment Jazz was taken from him. Something made of pure evil deliberately set out to cause pain. That's how Danny saw it. For some reason, the demon wanted Danny to hurt. The demon wanted Danny to suffer. Danny did not know why, and for a long time he didn't care or want to know. The only thing that was clear to him was that the demon had set out to harm him, and knew the one true way to do such a thing was to take those who meant the most to him. _

_That was pure evil: to strike at your opponent, or anyone, from the inside out. _

_Danny moved in with Sam. Her parents graciously accepted him into their home, knowing of his troubles and sympathizing with him about his parents' absence. They were very strict, though. He was not allowed into Sam's room after __nine o'clock__, and they were not allowed to show affection to each other in the presence of the Masons. It offended them, Sam explained. They thought it weird to be housing the child their daughter loved. _

_He accepted this; they were, after all, doing him a favor, and now that Danny had moved into a family buzzing with wealth, his parents did not feel the need to send money as often as they had. He was welcome to the food, of course, but asking for money to buy new clothes was hard. He kept the majority of the money his parents kept in a white envelope, knowing he would need it once he graduated from high school. _

_He used that money to visit his parents once in __Alabama__. He'd flown there, and had seen them for a little while. He didn't remember much._

_Tucker's absence was well felt. It was Sam crying most of the time, not Danny. She felt terrible about it; Tucker had departed still very much angry with her for taking Danny from him. That knowledge pulsed within her heart and tore at her soul. He would hold her when he could, hugging her tightly and kissing her hair. _

_The news of his parents reached his ears two weeks after the fact. It was the last month of his junior year, and he was sitting in physics class with Sam, holding her hand, when the runner from the office came. He was taken to Lancer's office in the administration building where Lancer, the principal, and Sam's dad were waiting for him. Mr. Mason asked him to take a seat. He did. _

_His parents were gone. They weren't coming back. _

_Danny sat in the chair rigidly, grasping the armrests so tightly he was surprised they did not break. He was tired suddenly, so tired. He gaped at the trio of them, unsure of what to do or say. The shock receded within him for a long time. The principal left, as did Mr. Manson. He would be back when school ended; there was official business to be taken care of, but could he stay at the school until then? _

_Lancer stayed with him, and asked if he would like Ms. Manson to join him. He'd nodded mutely, staring out the window at the cloudy sky. He suddenly wanted to fly, go intangible and flee from Lancer's office into the heavens. He wanted to go, just go. _

_His anguish bubbled to the surface the moment Sam walked in, tears already in her eyes. She rushed to him and enveloped him in her arms. He began to sob uncontrollably, and Lancer stepped out. He'd be back in an hour. _

_Danny fell into her, his legs completely going numb. She gripped him around the arms, and they lowered onto the ground. Half hysterical, he screamed onto her shoulder, again and again. Lancer came racing back in, saw the two of them, and left again, saying he'd get the school physiatrist and she'd be here in thirty minutes. Make sure he didn't hurt himself, Ms. Manson. _

_He wanted to burn his heart out and throw it to the wind. He wanted to cut out his eyes and torch them. He wanted to escape from his body and watch it burn. The pain hurt so bad. So, so bad. _

_She cried with him, held him and rocked him. When the doctor came in, she told her the service wasn't needed. But Lancer had said so. Sam said it was a mistake; she wasn't needed, could she please just leave? She was upsetting him. The doctor left in a huff. _

_Lancer didn't come back in the hour he had promised, nor did he come back the hour after. He returned shortly after the final bell. Danny had passed out somewhere around fifth period and was still out when Lancer returned. Lancer looked down at him with pitying eyes and told Sam her father was waiting with the car out front, but had said he would wait for the crowd to die if that was what she wanted. Sam said yes, and they waited for another thirty minutes to leave. _

_Danny was dazed. Lancer supported him on the trip to the car, earning a few stares from the few students milling around. The teacher dumped Danny gently in the back of the car and slammed the door. No, he told Mr. Manson, he didn't expect Danny to show up for the next week or so. He would send him homework at the end of week. _

_Mr. Manson drove them to the legal office of Michael Tyler, his parent's attorney. They'd had an attorney? Danny asked. _

_Everyone did, Mr. Manson said briskly. _

_Tyler__ told him bluntly his parents had not left him much. The house, the equipment, the RV and their savings, which did not amount to much. Danny sat there in stunned silence. Mr. Manson had brought along his own attorney, who Danny had met a while back and had asked to be called Andrew. Andrew sat stiffly and took notes next to him. _

_Tyler__ told Danny his parents had requested his legal guardian become Vlad Masters. That one piece of information brought a gasp from Sam and a jerk from Danny. Tyler then told them that if the Mansons wanted to claim guardianship of Danny, they could if Danny emancipated himself from Vlad after the custody went through. _

_Mr. Manson called his wife and asked if she would accept taking guardianship of Danny. They'd talked for a long time, and listened to Sam's pleas that they do so. They could sell the stuff, she said. That'd be enough money. Did Danny want to, they asked. Yes, he said in a voice that did not sound like his. He very much did. _

_They agreed. Tyler and Andrew hammered out the details, calling Vlad and asking him if he could accept custody of one Daniel James Fenton. He'd be delighted. They faxed over some papers. Vlad signed them and faxed them back. Daniel now wished to be emancipated. Vlad was quiet and exploded. _

_Danny signed some papers in barely legible scrawl and they sent it to Vlad. If he didn't sign it, they said, they'd have the __Wisconsin__ police over in a heartbeat. They heard Vlad snort over the phone as he signed and then faxed the paper back. He hollered goodbye to Danny and hung up. _

_Tyler__ had Mr. Manson sign some more papers and told him to contact the attorney in a day. But for a moment, Daniel James Fenton legally belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Manson. _

_I'm glad, Mr. Manson said, and took Sam and Danny home. _

_They let Danny stay in Sam's room for the night after the pair promised nothing too intimate would go on. As soon as her parents backed out of the room, Sam kissed Danny violently over and over again, as if she could somehow steal his pain out through his lips. He kissed her back, and was sorely tempted to break their promised before Sam had enough sense to turn on the light and just hold him. _

_Danny had Mr. Manson sell everything but the Spirit Remover. He snuck it into Sam's room and hid it in her massive closet. He kept it… just in case. _

_Danny was 17 at the time. _

-------------------

Danny giggled to the wind thinking of his parents. Parents! What parents? After Jazz had been taken, they didn't care! What parents loved for so little time and didn't care for the rest? His parents weren't parents; they were imposters, truly dreadful, terrible imposters who had only pretended for a long, long time. Parents, ha! That wasn't true.

He wondered vaguely if it had ever been true.

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	2. Part Two

**A/N: **Okay. This has turned out to be MUCH longer than I thought it would be, and because of that, I've decided to make this a chapter story with, hopefully, a sequel. I apologize for any confusion this may cause. Also, please forgive my last chapter for any screwed up legal action. I am not a lawyer and don't intend to become one.

Thank you's to **Fadeaway**** Windwaker, Kats02980416, and Lucy **for reviewing.

-**GraySkyeMourning**

****

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**_Part Two_**

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**_Send away for a priceless gift  
One not subtle, one not on the list  
Send away for a perfect world  
One not simply, so absurd_**

_For the longest time, Sam had been first in his life. She was his love, his light, and she was always, always there. She came first always, but apparently the demon saw it fitting that she be last. _

_At the time, they'd been dating for the last two years. It was almost a record at __Casper__High School__, and even Paulina took the time to speculate if the two would get married straight out of school, something she was planning herself to her boyfriend of three months. _

_Danny didn't know. Sam had applied to several colleges, slightly annoyed with the fact Danny only applied to a few and had said he would only go to one where she was going. He didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, but he was certain if she wasn't in it he wouldn't have one at all. She'd blushed furiously when he told her and had kissed him. _

_They lost their virginity to each other the night of prom. Danny had not wanted to go, and Sam only went because her parents demanded she attend at least one high school function other than the first dance. She'd dragged him alone, looking lovely in a black, strapless gown with a taunting slit up her leg. They spent of the night watching the dance rather than participating, spending only two slow songs wrapped in each others arms. He'd held her so close Lancer had walked over and demanded they separate at least an inch. _

_It was a simple, joyous time and Danny felt truly happy for the first time in months. _

_After the dance, he had taken her to the park. She had always adored moonlit strolls, and he had brought a blanket so they could look at the stars. He had not meant to make love to her. She kissed him, and he kissed back and they fooled around for a bit. When his hand found way through the slit in her dress upward, he knew her surprise paled in comparison to his. _

_Her dress had hiked, his belt had fallen. He made a complete fool of himself, and she didn't care. She cried his name, again and again, her nails digging into the skin on his back. He kissed her, silencing her scream and losing himself in her eyes. She stared at him as her body relaxed, moonlight shining in her irises. She loved him, she said. She loved him so goddamn much. _

_They'd been half hysterical the time they got home, and when they stumbled through the door still kissing her parents were waiting. Her mother took charge, asking how the dance had been. Lovely, Sam had said, holding Danny's hand without thought and laughing amiably. Her mother was furious, and threw withering glances at her husband. Mr. Manson took Danny to his room and flat out asked him what had happened. _

_Danny hated doing it, but he lied through his teeth. He knew Sam was doing the same. Who knew? He was eighteen, and she a month shy of her eighteenth birthday. They might make him leave, or they might be so mad to file charges. _

_Mr. Manson didn't believe him, but nodded and took his leave. When he left, Danny laid on his bed in ecstasy and fell asleep with dreams of Sam, and not nightmares. _

_When they were both accepted into the __College__ of __Santa Fe__, they'd rejoiced. It had been Sam's second choice, and since it made her happy Danny was happy. Her parents celebrated. It was calm, respected school that was easy on plane miles. Sam's first choice, the University of California, San Diego, sent a rejection letter late in the spring. Danny never saw it, but Sam's sadness was apparent enough. _

_Somehow, he managed to garner himself a scholarship based on his merit in the way of science. He was amazed; he'd never really studied for science, but it came naturally to him. It was in his genes, Lancer had said when he heard the news. Danny didn't like talking about his genes, so Lancer wisely kept quiet after that. _

_The demon took her two days after graduation. It had been a weary occasion, one Danny had not relished. The Mansons had yelled when his name had been called, but that had been it. He'd gotten the reputation as the odd kid with no parents and whose best friend and sister were gone. He was living with his girlfriend. He was the whore, the bad seed. _

_It hurt, and he hated that it hurt. _

_He and Sam made love again that night in the back of her car. He pledged his life to her's, and asked her if she would marry him. It had been a flippant thing, a question he had not expected her to answer. When she said in all seriousness yes, he'd wanted to cry in joy. _

_He went to the store the next day and bought her a cheap, fifteen dollar promise ring he'd slipped onto her finger that night. She looked at her hand for a long time, and started crying. He was startled; what had he done? But she smiled when she looked at him, and said she could hardly wait. She hugged him, and promised she'd always be there for him. _

_The promise had been broken later that night. Sam's parents were out of town for the weekend, the first weekend they'd ever taken off since Danny had come to live with them. They left Sam's grandmother in charge, but she was a sweet old lady who liked Danny very much and didn't much care what they did after hours as long as they didn't interrupt the late night reruns she enjoyed watching. With that in mind, Danny spent the night in Sam's room, talking with her and holding her. _

_He felt complete, almost blissful as he lay there next to her. She smelled like violets, and he didn't let her go for a long, long time, staying awake and watching her sleep. She looked so peaceful, so lovely and perfect in his arms and buried under her comforter. He kissed her hair, and drifted off to sleep. _

_It was the last sleep he ever had not interrupted by nightmares, or bad dreams that ended with Sam screaming that he didn't save her. When he awoke, she was screaming. It seemed like a huge struggle to open his eyes. He knew she was screaming, could hear her thrashing madly in bed, but he couldn't open his eyes. He turned his back to her slowly, getting up and falling back into bed the next moment. _

_His eyes opened, and her scream seemed to intensify. He shot to his feet, immediately going ghost and mouth dropping open when he realized Sam was now gone. _

_Danny was eighteen at the time. _

-------------------

He could see them now. They surrounded him, their shapes ominous and black under the raging sky. He shivered again, coughing and whimpering. They knew he was here. The demon knew he was here. He tried to go intangible, struggled to become invisible. His human body would not let him go. He closed his eyes, forced away the pain, and concentrated.

His human body remained.

He screamed.

-------------------


	3. Part Three

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**Part Three**

**_In these times of doing what you're told  
You keep these feelings, no one knows  
What ever happened to the young man's heart  
Swallowed by pain, as he slowly fell apart_**

****

_The Mansons kicked him out. _

_He was legally an adult, and without Sam, there was no reason for him to stay with them. It was his fault, anyway, their eyes said. He was jinxed. First his sister, then his best friend, then his parents, and now their daughter. Those close to Danny Fenton were cursed to be taken in the same way Sam had been. Never would they allow his curse to befall upon their family after Sam. _

_They gave him back his promise ring. He put it on a chain and wore it close to his heart. He was miserable. His scholarship included dorm and book fees, and so he went to college early, housing in the unit that should have been a dorm away from Sam's. His roommate was a kid named Matt Liles who listened to rock music and picked at his guitar more than he opened a book. His major was music, and his singing voice was loathsome. _

_He didn't like thinking about Sam. It hurt too much. When even a small thought crossed his mind, he would tear up and start to brawl. He couldn't concentrate without her. Doing much of anything hurt too badly. He was late to registration and wasn't able to get the electives he wanted. His required courses came with his scholarship since it was a school orientated one, but he was stuck in Humanities and Creative Writing 101. It didn't bother him, and so he returned to his dorm to sleep once again. _

_He spent a lot of time sleeping. Because his scholarship paid for everything, he didn't see the need to find a job. Matt liked Danny a lot, and usually bought something for him whenever he went to McDonald's, which was three times a day. It was hard for Danny to think that he was living completely on charity, and so he usually didn't think about. Most of his day was spent sleeping, and it was the nights when the insomnia hit hard. _

_He didn't like sleeping in the dark. For some reason, it frightened the hell out of him. The dark seemed to creep, to walk and to slither with a sinister intention. He saw shadows. Shadows of his parents, of Tucker and Jazz, but most of the time it was Sam he saw. She would appear before him during darkness, and at any darkness. He would close his eyes, and she'd be there, staring at him silently. He'd open his night in the dark, and she'd be there. He'd close his eyes, and she'd be there. _

_He didn't like sleeping at night. The day was better, because if he kept the shades open, there would always be a faint dose of light hitting his eyelids. Sam's image would be blurred, unrecognizable. If he imagined it was Tucker, he could sleep. _

_The Mansons called him two weeks before the start of term. Matt had provided the phone, and he handed it to Danny, looking puzzled. Only the campus administration knew Danny shared a room with a Matt. He thought about being angry at them for prying so much, but decided against it. Anger took energy, and he was in short supply of that. _

_Mrs. Manson was on the line screaming. She told him she loathed him, that she hated him, that it was his fault Sam was gone. Her voice was wild and unconstrained. When she voice broke through the receiver, Matt dropped his pick and stared at Danny. _

_Mr. Manson took the line and calmly asked him if he knew anything about Sam's acceptance letter into the University of California, __San Diego__ It had been her first choice. Why had she opted for the __College__ of __Santa Fe__ instead? Why had dusty __New Mexico__ been her calling rather than breezy, sun streaked __San Diego__? Because Sam loved the ocean. _

_She told him she'd been rejected, Danny stammered at him. _

_Well, it was for you, Mr. Manson had hissed before he hung up. _

_Danny looked down at the phone for a long time, the dial tone not filtering into his ears. Matt watched him a while longer, told him to hang up the phone, and went back to humming along with his guitar. Danny hung up the phone. _

_He laid down on his cot, turned away from Matt and cried. _

-------------------

Why couldn't he go ghost?

He remembered the thoughts that had come when he couldn't sleep. He had thought so much about just leaving the human world, about turning intangible and never going back. It would hurt less in the world of the nonliving, wouldn't it? Maybe even Sam had turned into a ghost…

But then he remembered that it had been the demon that had taken Sam. The demon had been a ghost. How could he even dare to think about living among those evil, vile creatures? He had decided to use the Spirit Remover. He couldn't have part of a dead being in him anymore. It was too close to Sam.

Was that why he couldn't go ghost? Had he used the Spirit Remover?

He closed his eyes.

He couldn't remember.

The dark figures around him closed in.

-------------------

**A/N: **

Thank you to **Kats and Adam's Jane **for the reviews they were kind enough to leave me. It is very appreciated.

The next part will be longer. Thank you, and here's a preview of the next part:

**_He shouldn't be here. None of this should have ever happened. _****Why _had this happened? It wasn't fair! It had started when he was a fourteen year old kid fresh into high school. He hadn't been evil, not like the demon. He hadn't even been bad. He obeyed his parents, didn't yell at his sister all the time, was nice to his friends and got decent grades in school. _Why _had it been he who had gone into the portal? Why? _**

****

**_Was he just too stupid to realize the accident would cost him his entire life? The lives of those he loved? Why hadn't he seen it before? Why hadn't he used the Spirit Remover the second he had the chance? _**

****

**_Sometimes – a lot of the times – he hated himself…_**


	4. Part Four

**-----**

**Part Four**

**_And I'm staring down the barrel of a 45,  
Swimming through the ashes of another life_******

_After Sam had been taken, he had sworn to never return to __Amity__Park__. It was his hometown no longer. Those who had known him thought it better to never look at him. Those who knew Daniel Fenton were cursed; everyone knew that. If he wasn't cursed, why was everyone he had ever loved now gone? You would have to be cursed for that. _

_Danny went back to __Amity__Park__ three months after Sam. He took opted not to fly and took a bus. He was going to be missing a day of school, but it seemed so unimportant. There was a job to be done, and maybe, just maybe if he was lucky, the image of Sam would flee from his mind and when he closed his eyes the darkness would not be there. _

_Hope's Mercy Psychiatric Hospital had always been a bleak sight, but now that Danny was going to enter it for only the second time in his life, it was even more depressing. It was an out of the way hospital, tucked deep behind the park and surrounded by trees and a high, mesh wire fence. Danny had to show two forms of ID and be searched by security before allowed onto the path that led to the hospital entrance. _

_Although he knew which room he was visiting, he still thought it better to check in and make sure no changes had been made. They told him that all was as it had been the since his last visit, and pointed him to floor three, the permanent ward where he would find all his patients. They smiled at him with rugged smiles and blank eyes. They'd probably seen much better days. _

_He stopped by to see Tucker first. He was the only person allowed to beside Tuck's parents. Behind the durasteel door and the plaited glass, Tucker was laying in the prone position on something akin to a bed. His lips were moving, but his eyes were closed. Danny had to look away; Tucker looked ten years older than nineteen and no one had bothered to cut his hair for a while. He looked like the living dead. _

_He stopped next by Jazz's room. Someone had tried to shave her bald, it seemed: her hair hung inches below her ears and was feathered in many layers. It looked good, but it killed Danny to see someone else making the decisions for Jazz. She was sitting on her bed, hands twisting around each other and staring blankly at the wall. He watched her for a while longer as she got to feet and began to trace circles in the wall with her finger. A deranged smile fell upon her face, and she began to laugh. _

_He went to his father's room next. For some reason, they had separated his parents. His father was violent a lot of the time. Danny closed his eyes for a long time as he stared at his father dressed so neatly in a paste white straight jacket. Jack's eyes were wide and blood shot, scanning all corners of the room and bouncing on his toes every other second. His lips were moving quickly and his eyes narrowed together when he saw Danny staring through the glass window. For a moment, Danny was sure his father would call for him, but suddenly Jack flung himself at the door, shouting and screaming. His spit covered the glass. _

_Danny leapt back, startled. Tears began at the corners of his eyes, and he reminded himself Jack had stopped caring after Jazz. It hurt so badly to think that, but if he didn't, he knew he would be sobbing on the ground. Jack pounded the door for a while before retreating. He paced angrily around the room, stabbing his head into the walls. _

_His mother was next up. She had been deemed slightly saner by the doctors and was in the common area. Others were milling around, shooting dice and then tossing the board across the room. He had to look for a while to spot his mother. She wasn't alone like he had figured; she sat hunched in the center of a group of women. She looked… normal. She looked like herself. She was chatting and laughing next to a woman with frizzy blond hair and looking as if she were still herself. _

_Before he could stop himself, he had asked the guard to visit with her, and they let him in and brought Maddie over. He was hopeful; how could he not be? She didn't look dead like Tucker or crazy like Jazz or moody like Jack. She looked so normal it seemed weird. _

_"Mom?" he asked. _

_She stared at him for the longest time and then called him "Jack". She scolded him on not calling, and asked him how Danny was. He told her he was Danny, and then she started screaming. Where were Jazz and Danny? Why was she here? Was there a reason he was keeping her locked up until the cows came home? She wanted to see her children!_

_"I'm Danny, Mom!" _

_She began to cry, and the guards led him away. _

_He loitered in the visitor's area for a while, taking in a bag of potato chips and lounging stiffly on the hard backed chairs scattered around the room. He was alone, save for the clerk hunched in the small office with the bullet proof windows. What did they think? That somehow the prisoners would make it through the five chain link fences and through the security checkpoint and the two guards stationed near the visitor's area to get at the clerk? He rolled his eyes and started to cry. _

_He shouldn't be here. None of this should have ever happened. _Why _had this happened? It wasn't fair! It had started when he was a fourteen year old kid fresh into high school. He hadn't been evil, not like the demon. He hadn't even been bad. He obeyed his parents, didn't yell at his sister all the time, was nice to his friends and got decent grades in school. _Why _had it been he who had gone into the portal? Why? _

_Was he just too stupid to realize the accident would cost him his entire life? The lives of those he loved? Why hadn't he seen it before? Why hadn't he used the Spirit Remover the second he had the chance? _

_Sometimes – a lot of the times – he hated himself. _

_He got up and checked in again, then walked slowly down a blank corridor until he came to a door with a plastic sheet reading A12 SAMANTHA MANSON. He traced her name, struggling to find some connection with her. With another tug at his heart, he realized that if it had happened a few years later, the sign might have read SAMANTHA FENTON. _

_The thought hurt. _

_Thin, black lines crisscrossed the glass staring into her room. He willed himself to look. Didn't he owe to her some part of his love at all? Didn't he still love her enough to look at her? Had he been sleep deprived over the last three months because he didn't love her? He would always love her. _

_She deserved for him to look at her, didn't she? Or would his gaze only haunt her even more? Would the demon kill her next? _

_Wouldn't death be welcome to this hell? _

_He looked in the window. _

_She was sitting on the floor, hands clasped in her lap. She rocked back and forth, gazing around with nothing in her eyes. Her mouth was moving, and by the way her throat was working, he knew that she was shouting. He pressed his ear against the cold door, hoping to somehow hear her voice. No sound filtered out, and he looked back in the window. _

_Deep bags hung under her pale face, and the violet hue he loved so much seemed washed and faded. Her hair was coarse, and had obviously not been combed in some time. Suddenly she pitched back and laid on the ground, curling into a ball and tears dripping down her face. She was still shouting, although her voice was dropping, lips barely moving. She tangled her hands in her hair and closed her eyes, as if in pain. _

_Before he knew what he was doing, Danny had gone intangible and had stepped through her door. Still intangible, he stepped around her. She went very still, and her eyes darted from side to side. She shivered, and he wanted to hold her. _

_"Who's there?" she asked. "Danny?" _

_It was if a rocket had gone off in his head. Immediately he became human again, and crashed to his knees beside her. She looked up at him with fear in her eyes, and shot up to her feet and over to the bed. She pulled up her sheet and slammed her head into the pillow. _

_"Sam?" he asked. _

_"Get away from me!" she screamed, voice muffled. "You're stupid, you're hideous, I hate you… get away from me!" _

_"Sam?" he tried again. _

_"NO!" she shouted. "Who are you, Danny? I don't even know anymore! Why are you here? To kill me? To finish me off?" _

_"What?"_

_"Like you killed Tuck and Jazz and your parents!__ How dare you deny it, you foul, evil thing! You and those ghosts! What did Vlad offer you, Danny? A place of power? To murder as you please? What, Danny, what? Don't I deserve an answer, Danny?" _

_He looked at her, open-mouthed. _

_"Don't you dare look at me like that! I gave you… oh, damn it, Danny, I gave you everything! And you do this to me? Send me here? Where they refuse to let me out? Danny, you're such… I can't even describe you, Danny! You're a foul, evil thing. You're not human, I don't know if you ever were! You killed them all… and you sent me here. They won't let me out. My parents don't believe me when I talk about you, and what you did. _

_"I'm going mad, Danny! I can't stay here, I can't. I'm dying, oh, I'm dying."_

_"Sam-" he started, his heart crying. _

_"I hate you! I hate you so much! How dare you do this to me? How DARE you?" _

_He went intangible. _

_"Oh, run away! FINE! Do I give damn? NO! Because it won't matter in the end, anyway. It never matters!" _

_"I love you," he whispered. _

_He flew. _

-------------------

They were streaking around him, their mouths open in screams. Shrill, terrible voices rose in the night, and Danny clutched his hands over his ears. He whimpered even more shrilly, feeling his tears come faster. He huddled into himself, feeling miserable and wishing he were dead.

-------------------

**A/N: **

My greatest thanks goes out to **Adam's Jane and Lightning Streak **for reviewing the last chapter. It means more than you know.

And a preview of the next part:

**_A white void seemed to fill his mind, and he slept on that white cloud, lost in his own darkness. He knew he was moving, was quite sure of it, but he didn't know where or why. The darkness after such whiteness was a blessing, one he intended to put to good use. The white crept under his eyelids and allowed him the illumination he needed to rest._**

****

**_He slept on the void for a long time. He felt a faint breeze tickle his sides and move through his hair. It felt good against the hotness of his face. _**

****

**_When he opened his eyes, he was facing down. Directly below him stood an old, refined house that looked faintly familiar. Something sounded in his mind, and he dove towards the house, turning intangible a second before he would have crashed into the roof. He stopped on the last floor and came to rest by the stairwell. Not truly understanding why he was there, he stood and stared up the stairwell, somehow realizing he was waiting. _**

****

**_For someone…_******


	5. Part Five

**-----**

**Part Five**

**_No real reason to accept the way things have changed  
Staring down the barrel of a 45_**

****

_For a long time he flew with no direction and no destination. He needed to get away, and that was the only thought that came into his mind. Pain blurred the edges of his conscious thought, and he tried to flee and to leave it behind. _

_Some remnant of confusion slunk into his mind. For a while he flew in circles, dimly wondering if right was up or down. Sam's face came into his mind, and he flew down at a breakneck speed, going intangible a second before slamming into the pavement. He floated amidst the pipes and muck for a while, swimming through the trash of the city. When the dark was so complete it seemed too hard to breathe, he shot slowly upward, erupting over the city and turning east. _

_A white void seemed to fill his mind, and he slept on that white cloud, lost in his own darkness. He knew he was moving, was quite sure of it, but he didn't know where or why. The darkness after such whiteness was a blessing, one he intended to put to good use. The white crept under his eyelids and allowed him the illumination he needed to rest._

_He slept on the void for a long time. He felt a faint breeze tickle his sides and move through his hair. It felt good against the hotness of his face. _

_When he opened his eyes, he was facing down. Directly below him stood an old, refined house that looked faintly familiar. Something sounded in his mind, and he dove towards the house, turning intangible a second before he would have crashed into the roof. He stopped on the last floor and came to rest by the stairwell. Not truly understanding why he was there, he stood and stared up the stairwell, somehow realizing he was waiting. _

_For someone._

_"There you are." _

_Vlad__ Masters stood at the top of the stairwell, one hand resting on the railing, the other rubbing his chin. His eyes burned. Danny stared at him in shock. Vlad had been waiting for him. He knew that much. But why? He hadn't see Vlad Masters in years, since that reunion for his father and his college friends… when Vlad had offered to train him… _

_And as it always did, the memories came running back. He sucked in air and closed his eyes tightly. _

_"I told you not to go see her," Vlad told him. "I told you last week it was stupid to even think about it." _

_"I didn't think about it," Daniel muttered. "Danny did." _

_"Of course _you _didn't," Vlad said in annoyance. "Your softer side did." _

_"I'm sorry." _

_Vlad__ waved his hand and started down the stairs. "Your apology does no one any good and so do not waste time on it." _

_"I won't." _

_Vlad__ stared at him and shook his head. "Why are you here?" _

_"I… I don't know."_

_"Did you want comfort? I told you not to see her, and I won't comfort you for that." _

_"I don't need comfort." _

_"Of course you don't. But you came here for a reason, didn't you?" _

_"No… I don't think so." _

_Vlad__ waved his hands. "Then why don't you leave, Daniel? I didn't pay for that scholarship for you to waste it. You're missing school, aren't you?" _

_"I am." _

_"Then go and _learn."

_"I told you I can't." _

_"I can't make you like this all the time, and you know that. It's your own fault. I told you to let me take care of them and not to worry about it. But you wanted to do it. You wanted to be rid of your weaknesses. And so you did it. I told you how, and you did what I told you. And now you're depressed because you did. Not my fault, and I can't very well follow you around to school, can I?" _

_"You should have let me kill them!" Daniel shouted. "Then at least I couldn't think about them!" _

_Vlad__ shook his head, smiling slightly. "Now, what good would that do? You would think about them and wouldn't be able to appease your need to see them. Also not my fault. I've told you to stop, that if you try hard enough you'll be rid of Danny Fenton. But apparently you're not trying hard enough." _

_Daniel glared at him. _

_"Don't blame me for this," Vlad said, smile vanishing and voice lowering. "Do not dare. As I remember, you came to me." _

_"Not true," Daniel snarled. "Not true." _

_"Really?"__ Vlad mocked._

_"You had that Hunter get me!" he shouted. "That girl! You supplied her with the tools and she carried them out! And she brought me to you when she captured me." _

_"And if you'll remember, you're the one who begged me to be rid of your weaknesses." _

_"Only after what you did.__ Only after you locked me in that room with that… with that monster and made me forget _why _I _had _weaknesses." _

_Vlad__ waved his hand. "Enough of this. Enough. Go." _

_Daniel stood his ground. Seeing Sam had scared him. Or, to be precise, it had sacred _Danny. _Daniel shared a mind with the sixteen-year-old boy, the one he had forcibly taken over when Vlad had locked him in the Dark Room with the monster. The monster had no form, but it tormented him, caused Daniel to be born in Danny's place and caused him to take over the weight of living. Danny was too scared to ever truly live after what had been done to him. _

_It was shaky relationship. While Danny would forever be too dead to live on his own, neither was Daniel strong enough to live without him. The training with Vlad to be rid of Danny and to use his power to the fullness was tiring and insufferable sometimes. It left Daniel tired, wiped out, unable to function without the help of Danny Fenton. In those times, he would allow that shell of Danny out under his lazy watch. It was hard to let him lead in the confused, scared and pitiful manner he did, but most of the time he was just too worn to do anything about it. _

_"Vlad… I can't." _

_Fury etched into his Master's features. "What do you mean you _can't?"

_Daniel stayed silent and stared at him in defiance. "I can't go. I'm not going back." _

_"To that school?"_

_"I'm not going back to __Amity__Park__." _

_Disbelief crossed Vlad's features. "What are you talking about? That's the place of the take-over." _

_"I never agreed." _

_The fury returned. "You don't agree. You do what I tell you. You're letting that Danny get to you. Stop it! Stop listening!" _

_Vlad__ wouldn't understand. Vlad didn't see that kid in his mind, didn't hear his whimpers and his cries and his thoughts. Didn't feel how it was to completely own him, to dictate what to do and when to do it. It had never sat right with Daniel. That monster in the Dark Room had installed within him pity for the suffering. He understand Danny's suffering, for all he, Daniel, had done. Taking those people's sanity wasn't hard. _

_Daniel knew how to do it. There was part of the human body that was unstable, unknowing and completely foreign to pain. The part was liable, easy to suffering and quick to judge. It was despicable, that part of the body. It relied on so much to stay, yet relied on even less to fall apart. _

_So Daniel destroyed their worlds by overshadowing the heart and abolishing their feelings. _

_It never worked completely. Some emotion always shelved through. It usually centered on the last thought. Jack was angry, Jazz happy, Tucker disbelieving, Maddie thoughtful, and Sam betrayed. That mindset would stay with them forever, Daniel knew. He wasn't sad about that. All those people, as far as he was concerned, weren't worth the effort. They weren't special. _

_And as he thought that, inside his mind Danny began to cry. _

_"I'm not participating," he said with no emotion. "You have enough minions." _

_"Don't say no to me," Vlad screamed. "Do not!" _

_"No." _

_Vlad__ went ghost. Daniel watched him. _

_"I want you to run," Vlad said dangerously. "I want you to run. I will find you, and you know that. But I will allow you, because you're the coward I know you are, to run. I will give you until nightfall." _

_"Are you afraid, Vlad?" Daniel said. "Are you afraid to fight me? Because I know everything you know." _

_Vlad__ grinned. "No, Danny, you do not." Daniel gritted his teeth. "You don't know what it's like to destroy. For all you've done, you have never killed. Nothing taints as that does. You don't have it within you to do that. You're weaker than I for it." _

_Daniel dove, blasting at him. Vlad blocked it and returned with a hail storm of red fire. _

_The battle was long and furious. A lucky shot was important to Daniel, while Vlad thrived in skilled ones. Again and again, fire lashed across his face and his body. Daniel hated the idea of backing down. Pain beat at him, harder than any he had ever known aside from the Dark Room and the monster. Agony swept through his veins, and when he did retreat, it was to behind the steel door Vlad kept for his lab._

_He huddled behind the door, and Daniel knew it was time to go. _

_Retreating from his mind, Daniel shrunk until Danny was alive. _

-------------------

They came faster now until they were just white blurs, streaking towards him with the speed of a lightning bolt.

-------------------

- Happy New Year! This post was my gift to all you for the New Year who reviewed the fic: **MiT****, Danni-2005 (PLEASE post on "My Immortal"!), Lightning Streak, Adam's Jane, Dannys-Ghostly-Girl, Cherrii, I-AM-ME-AND-THAT-IS-ALL-THAT-MATTERS. **Your support is great!

And a preview of the next part, which may or may not be altered:

**_He flew for hours. Somehow, on that white cloud, he found his way to _****_Amity_********_Park_****_. He went to the park, and to the first tree he had ever climbed. Sam had been on the ground, craning her neck up and laughing. Tucker was there, too, involved in his computer and sprouting off the stats that Danny would break his neck. _**

****

**_He'd been eight then, young and naïve and innocent. _**

****

**_Had he ever really been innocent?_**


	6. Part Six

**Part Six**

**_Send a message to the unborn child  
Keep your eyes open for a while_******

_"You cannot escape this, child." _

_Danny leaned against the cold steel doorframe, ignoring the fact that if that demon so pleased, he could blast open the door and destroy him. He rested his burnt cheek against the steel, taking an ounce of pleasure from the feeling. He closed his eyes, and listened to the maniacal laughter that wafted from the other side of the door. _

_"Everyone is gone. There is nothing left." _

_He didn't want to think about that. It hurt to bad. Slowly, he slid with his back against the door until he was sitting down. He held his knees to his forehead, and leaned against them, attempting to shut off the pain. His burns hurt. _

_But the aching, gaping and unfinished hole that dramatized the center of his heart positively flamed. _

_He'd failed them. _

_He'd failed them all. _

_"You know this must be the end." _

_No. It couldn't just be the end, could it? That wasn't possible. This wasn't how things were supposed to turn out. They weren't all supposed to end up… like they did. They weren't all supposed to be the selfless incarnations of their former selves. This wasn't supposed to happen like this. _

_"I'm sorry they turned out like that." _

_No, he wasn't sorry. He was never sorry. _

_The demon only killed. _

_Losing your sanity was worst than losing your life, Danny had decided a long time ago. And now Daniel was sorry. How could he be? _

_And that thought passed over him again – _

Daniel's in here.

_Daniel killed. _

Daniel's not out there.

_Daniel is the demon. _

Daniel is you.

_No. I am Danny Fenton. I am fourteen and I am a freshman in high school. There is no one here who calls me Daniel. _

Vlad does.

_I do not know Vlad. _

Daniel knows Vlad.

_I don't know Daniel. _

Daniel is you. Daniel has glowing green eyes.

_With a gasp and a shudder, Danny knew that yes. _

_He was _Daniel.

_The guilt grew. He'd hurt them. He'd hurt them all. It had always been Daniel who hurt them. He was the one who touched their souls and killed them slowly from the inside. It was Daniel, it had always been Daniel. The monster in the Dark Room had created him. Borne of Danny's pain, Daniel had emerged strong, and it had always been Daniel who spoke and lived. _

_But it was _him. _It was his body. His life. _

It was his body!

_With a scream and a curl of his hands, Danny Fenton closed his eyes and flew. _

They were closer. Closer than ever.

_He flew for hours. Somehow, on that white cloud, he found his way to __Amity__Park__. He went to the park, and to the first tree he had ever climbed. Sam had been on the ground, craning her neck up and laughing. Tucker was there, too, involved in his computer and sprouting off the stats that Danny would break his neck. _

_He'd been eight then, young and naïve and innocent. _

_Had he ever really been innocent?_

_Sam had called the tree the Hanging Tree, and he climbed it again now, almost nineteen. _

_The branches ripped into his hands, tore at his flesh and crackled under his weight. He closed his eyes. The white gloves he wore were stained with the blood of his ghost form. His face, limbs, mind burned under the stress. Tears licked at his cheeks. _

_He didn't register the branch had broken until he was sprawled on the ground and had gone back to human. He cried out, and huddled close to the tree. _

_Above him, the sky opened and began to weep. _

…

The boy was asleep.

Or was he dead?

They picked his limp form up gently, cradling. He'd hurt himself again. The blood from the bark and from the escape trickled down his cheeks and his hands.

They put him the ambulance, and drove.

I know, I know, I haven't updated in forever. I've been very insecure about this part and the parts to come because I honestly don't have the storyline set firmly in my mind and I've been too lazy to write it down. But I do apologize for the long wait. There's one more part, and then the epilogue.

Thanks to **Faith's Melody, charpal, HelgaGP, MollytheWanderer, and Wolf Of the ****Midnight**

**Sun**… although you already know how the story ends. ;)

Here's a preview of the next part:

**_"You never believe me," he said softly. _**

****

**_She smiled sadly. "I'm sorry, Danny." _**

****

**_He nodded. "I'm not supposed to be here, Sam. Why are you keeping me here?" _**

****

**_"What did you do to make Jazz cry?" she countered. His doctor had told her sparring matches of the wits sharpened his mind and made him more… there, for lack of a better word. _**

****

**_He shook his head. "Jazz doesn't like to think I'm sane." He eyed her. "Neither do you." _**


	7. Part Seven

-------------------

**Part Seven**

**_In a box high up on the shelf, left for you, no one else  
There's a piece of a puzzle known as life  
Wrapped in guilt, sealed up tight_**

****

Samantha Manson hated the hospital.

It reminded her of things she'd rather forget, of things they'd all rather forget. She hated the bleakness of the scene, no matter how gothic and poetic she found the place. It was a terrible beauty, yet so stark and ugly in that beauty.

They called it Hope's Mercy. She wondered vaguely what idiot had thought of the name.

She wanted to forget him. For a long time, she had tried. It had been a year since they'd brought him here, and still her thoughts were plagued by him, taunted and dreamt of him. She remembered the way he laughed, the way his eyes would look at her with their piercing blue and mostly green.

Tucker and Jazz came with her. Jack and Maddie didn't like to visit. It pained them too much. She thought to tell them it was their fault. And it was. Their fault for turning him into a halfa. Their fault for never realizing he'd been dying inside from their obsession, their passion that had been his bane on existence.

They checked in. No one spoke on these visits.

Jazz went in first. They took the trips in turns. Seeing them all together hurt him for reasons beyond her comprehension.

Jazz stayed for a few minutes, and she came out crying. Sam hugged her best she could while Tuck took his turn. He stayed longer, for ten minutes. Wetness dabbed at his eyes, but he forced it away. Because Sam could always stay longer, for maybe thirty minutes, Jazz and Tucker usually spent time in the cafeteria, dining with the support group the hospital offered at this time. She watched their retreating backs, took a deep breath, and walked into the room.

Danny Fenton sat on the bed, dressed in that ridiculous hospital gown and huddled in the corner. When he saw her, his eyes went wide for a moment, and he began to mutter to himself.

She took her seat in the hard-backed chair, sitting stiff and unbending.

"Hi, Danny."

In disbelief, Danny closed his eyes and shook his head.

"You can tell me, you know. It makes you feel better."

He stared at her.

"You never believe me," he said softly.

She smiled sadly. "I'm sorry, Danny."

He nodded. "I'm not supposed to be here, Sam. Why are you keeping me here?"

"What did you do to make Jazz cry?" she countered. His doctor had told her sparring matches of the wits sharpened his mind and made him more… _there, _for lack of a better word.

He shook his head. "Jazz doesn't like to think I'm sane." He eyed her. "Neither do you."

"Danny," she started.

He held up a hand. "You really hate to believe it, too. I know you do. It hurts because you think I may be right. That maybe I'm perfectly sane, and hunting those stupid things didn't make me crazy."

"We've already been over this!" she said gently.

"We're talking normally now," he said, with triumph in his voice.

She closed her eyes. "Oh, Danny, I know that. That's because you're on your medication. That's because you've got those times when I look at you and believe you. Last week, you weren't like this. Last week, you sat there and told me I should be here, that I was crazy and keeping you locked up wouldn't change that. You told me Jazz and Tuck and Maddie and Jack were crazy. And that someone named Daniel told you this."

He shook his head slowly. "I was perfectly right in my head when I said that. And I'm perfectly right in my head now. The meds only work if you're crazy." And then he grinned in a way that made him seem anything but it. "And I'm not crazy. You are. And because of that, you keep me here."

Understanding came to his eyes. It was slow, a focusing in his usually glazed over eyes she had grown used to seeing again and again in all her visits. She braced herself for the outpouring that was building within him. Tension took his shoulders and his fingers clenched.

"It's payback, isn't it?" he said. "Because I kept you locked up… I didn't know what to do, Sam. I couldn't do anything. You told me you were a prisoner. You told me I was keeping you against your will, that it was my fault. I told you it wasn't. It was Daniel, I knew it was. I couldn't do anything then… I wanted to, believe me, I really did. But it was Daniel. Daniel was stronger then. I'm stronger now. Can't you see?"

He looked at her in clarity. "But Sam, don't you see? It was _me. _Me and Daniel. Daniel's inside me. After he locked me in that Dark Room, Daniel was there. I don't know how, Sam, but Daniel was inside me. Using me. He was overshadowing me." He looked at her with tears in his clear eyes. "I am crazy, aren't I, Sam?"

Sam felt her heart break again, as it had broken a million times since he had first come to her in front of the Hanging Tree and told her Danny was taking over. She'd scared him like nothing else then. When he would not stop in his urges, she took him to Tucker.

Tucker was more confused than she. He joked with Danny, told him to quit kidding. Danny looked at them in clarity and told them he was not Danny and had never been. He told them they weren't friends, but they were friends with Danny. He wanted them to tell Danny to leave him alone. That'd scared Tuck terribly, and it was Tucker who took him to his parents.

They committed him two days later to the hospital.

She knew it was from the ghosts. For two years, Danny had no future but to fight ghosts. When the college reps came and talked to the junior class about colleges needing clubs and after school activities, Danny had all but given up his life. For the first time, he could clearly see the future, and he just couldn't see past that Fenton Portal.

It was the night after the college reps had come that Sam saw something was purely wrong. Danny had been quiet all day, and Sam was too busy reading pamphlets and calming Tucker about tuition funds that she had not noticed his unwillingness to even glance at them. He'd sat in the auditorium next to her, his hand limp in hers. His eyes had been stony, dead almost.

That was when he told her he was scared. He'd never said that to her. Sure, he screamed in fright and yelled a lot of the time… but he had never looked at her with those blue eyes, usually so calm and collected, and told her he was afraid.

"I can't do this forever," he said.

She'd tried to tell him he did. He was smart. He had a supportive family. They'd get him through. What if he didn't get accepted? Danny had never been a terribly bright student, pulling mostly C's. His one strong point was science, in which he was pulling a high, steady B. She told him there were certain, specific scholarships that catered to strong areas of interest.

And although his eyes had lit up, she knew he didn't really believe her.

Some days, Sam would find him sitting under the Hanging Tree, staring mindlessly into space and silent to her calls. They'd been going out "officially" for two months, and it hurt her that he no longer cared enough to look at her. She was worried, yes, but she realized later she'd been too stupid to look past her own problems and see that Danny had a lot harder life than she did. She, Danny and Tuck hung out every night after school, but it was the night before Danny came to speak with her of Danny that he was not there.

She had blown it off, figuring he was wallowing in his own self-pity. She and Tuck had watched a movie at her house, and he'd gone home. The next day, when she'd gone to search for him under the Hanging Tree after his absence from school, he wasn't there. The day was young and warm, and so Sam had taken a spot under the Hanging Tree. She'd only been there a few minutes when she saw Danny approaching in wobbly way.

He came to her, stood in front of her, held her shoulders with shaky hands, and asked if she would please ask Danny to leave him, Daniel, alone.

Danny was so sick, and it hurt her to look at him.

"Danny," she started again.

"I'm going mad, Sam!" he suddenly screamed. "I can't stay here, I can't. I'm dying here, can't you see that?"

"Danny," she tried to say again, hoping to cut him off before he began to scream louder.

"I hate you, Sam!' He huddled up his knees and faced away from her. "How can you not see it? I'm not supposed to be here! I'm dying here! I hate you, Sam, I hate you."

She stood up.

"Oh, leave! Do I give damn? NO! Because it won't matter in the end, anyway. It never matters!"

"I love you," she whispered.

Closing her tearing eyes, she left and walked away.

-------------------

_He watched her walk out the room. _

_Didn't they see? Didn't they all see? _

_He wasn't crazy before, but now he was. _

_He most definitely was, and if he didn't leave soon, he'd die. _

_He'd tried before, but that had been Danny trying. Stupid, pitiful Danny who had fled through the hospital and under the fence. Stupid Danny, who had gone to the hanging tree and had been found. Daniel had thought it funny to watch him try and get caught. It had been downright hilarious, in fact. _

_Except being back here was crazy again.__ Being back here was stupid and silly and hard again. _

_He needed to leave. _

_Danny fought him as he struggled to go ghost. Danny yelled at him, screamed at him and told him to stay in the hospital. Sam was right; he needed this. He was crazy. _

_But he wasn't! He hadn't been before this!_

_Daniel went ghost and flew through the wall. _

-------------------

Vlad was waiting for him on the other side.

"Are you ready now?" he asked.

"I told you _no!" _he told him. "You lost your chance. I'm leaving."

"I came to you before and asked if you were ready," Vlad countered steadily. "And from what I say, you were not ready."

Daniel kept flying.

Vlad watched him and then called out, "she betrayed you."

He stopped.

"They've all betrayed you, haven't they? Haven't they all? Don't they deserve what you should have given them? What they somehow managed to get past? Don't they, Daniel? You've been in there for a year. A year! You've somehow forgotten all your training, haven't you? Because you would have left at the first sign, wouldn't you? Or was Danny too strong?"

Daniel slowly turned.

"Do you want to come with me? I'll teach you again. Do you want to make them pay?"

Daniel thought about Sam, and telling him he was crazy.

"I want to," he said slowly.

Vlad smiled.

"Help me with the take-over, Daniel."

He stayed silent.

"Come home, Daniel."

-------------------

- Sorry about the wait for this chapter, I know I've been bad. Although you can certainly thank **The Ultimate Enemy **for me even considering uploading this chapter. Again, sorry for the tardiness. I'll post the prologue soon as I get a chance, I promise. And then we go to the sequel… heehaw.

Thanks also to **charpal, Faith's melody, Fadeaway Windwaker, Rakal, wolfwhispers, and rikagirls** for reviewing the last chapter. And as always, my greatest thanks goes to **Wolf of the Midnight Sun**, who always makes me slow down, and loves Danny as much as me.

And your preview:

**_"Sam?" said Jazz's tentative voice, sounding even more tired and worn than it had been since Danny had first been admitted a year ago._**

****

**_"Jazz, what's wrong?" Jazz never called her unless it was to discuss times to go see Danny and that was only in the afternoons. _**

****

**_"Danny's gone," she whispered. _**


	8. Epilogue

**Epilogue **

_**Everyone's pointing their fingers  
Always condemning me  
And nobody knows what I believe **_

"Sam!" her mother yelled from downstairs. "Phone!"

Sleep slowed her reaction. Rubbing her eyes, she groped alongside her nightstand fro the phone. Blindly grabbing it, she shoved it next to her ear and muttered, "hello?"

"Sam?" said Jazz's tentative voice, sounding even more tired and worn than it had been since Danny had first been admitted two years ago.

"Jazz, what's wrong?" Jazz never called her unless it was to discuss times to go see Danny and that was only in the afternoons.

"Danny's gone," she whispered.

Sam's first reaction was _he's not already? _Then her sleep-crazed mind cleared. "What? You mean he ran away?"

"He…" Jazz lowered voice. "He never left his room. It was locked when you left, like it always is. _He didn't go out through the door." _

Sam blinked rapidly. That wasn't possible. Before they had taken Danny to the hospital, they'd pushed him through the Spirit Remover. It was something they should have done a long time ago, and watching that small, half formed ghost fly from her beloved Danny was almost unbearable.

"That's not possible," she told Jazz.

"I know it's not, Sam!" Jazz almost shouted. "But what was it, then? We asked not to keep a camera in his room."

"Are people looking for him?" she asked, holding her head.

"Hospital people, police, my parents," Jazz said. "I just wanted to tell you."

"Thanks, Jazz," Sam said. "I'll be over in an hour."

"Okay," Jazz said weakly and hung up.

_He'd left without going through the door. _

How was that possible? It couldn't be possible. It _wasn't _possible.

_Daniel is overshadowing me…_

No… that wasn't right, was it?

It couldn't be.

_Daniel is overshadowing me… _

Sam closed her eyes.

_Danny, please, no. _

_-----_

Thank you so much to everyone who has been reviewing this story and waiting for it to be finished. This prologue marks the end of this story, and beings the actions that continues in _Step Out of the Light. _I'm so sorry that presently I do not know when the sequel will be finished; I'm not writing in it now. As most things change, I've now returned to my main fandom and to allow time to write in that one, I must push aside some projects I should have finished before returning.

Again, thank you all so much for the reviews and naggings to complete this fic. I'm sorry you won't be getting too much closure here, but the way I think about it, it leaves the imagination open.

-GraySkyeMourning


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